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Sahl Tustari’s (d. 283/896) Esoteric Qur’anic Commentary and Rumi’s

Mathnawi: Part 1

Article  in  Mawlana Rumi Review · March 2014

DOI: 10.1163/25898566-00501011

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Assistant EditorsLeili Anvar-Chendero – inalco, Paris, France

Roderick GriersonNear East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

Franklin Lewis – University of Chicago, usaJames Morris – Boston College, usa

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VOLUME 5 2014

Sahl Tustari’s (d. 283/896) Esoteric Qur’anicCommentary and Rumi’s Mathnawi: Part 1

Maryam Musharraf and Leonard Lewisohn

Foreword

Perhaps because one of the main didactic purposes of Jalal al-Din Rumi’sMathnawi is to elucidate and expound the esoteric meanings of Islam’ssacred scripture, he often refers to his grand poem as the ‘Decoder of theQur’an’ (Kashshaf al-Qur’an). In fact, one of the main reasons why theMathnawi is such a rich depository of scriptural exe gesis and spiritualwisdom is precisely because of its focus on exegesis of the Qur’an. Beinghimself a learned exegete of the Muslim scripture, no doubt he hadaccess to all the various resources and texts of Qur’an commentaryavailable to other scholars of his day. Yet the bases of the exegeticalmethod that Mawlana Rumi propounded still remain unclear.Unfortunately, most scholars who have studied the Mathnawi’s

interpretation of the Qur’an have paid more attention to Mawlana’suse of traditional commentaries and disregarded the influence of mys -ti cal exegeses of the Qur’an on his poem. Despite the fact that eminentauthorities on the poetry of Rumi, such as Badic al-Zaman Furuzanfarand cAbd al-Husayn Zarrinkub, have drawn attention to Mawlana’sfasci na tion with the mystical interpretation of the Qur’an, to date nosystematic attempt has yet been made to evaluate the impact of earlyesoteric Qur’an exegeses upon the Mathnawi. This essay aims to dojust that, hopefully to serve as a preamble to further, more elaborate,investigations of Mawlana’s poetic use and adaptation of mysticalinterpretations of the Qur’an.In what follows, we rely mainly on two great works of mystical exe -

gesis. The first is Sahl ibn cAbdullah al-Tustari’s (d. 283/896) Exegesis ofthe Tremendous Qur’an (Tafsir al-Qur’an al-azim),1 which is probably

1 Sahl ibn cAbdullah al-Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Muhammad Basil (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya 1423/2001); see also Sahl ibn cAbdullah al-Tustari, Tafsir al-Qur’an

�

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the earliest independent mystical interpretation of the Muslim scrip -ture. The second is Abu cAbdu’l-Rahman al-Sulami’s (d. 412/1021) TheSpiritual Realities of Qur’anic Exegesis (Haqa’iq al-tafsir ), which con -tains selections from Tustari’s work as well as from other works byother great mystical commentators.2 We will endeavour to exposesome of the prominent similarities between the exegetical methodsused by Mawlana in the Mathnawi on the one hand and these twoesoteric commentaries on the other. We will also try to show howTustari’s and Sulami’s esoteric methods of interpreting the Qur’an canimprove our understanding of theMathnawi, hopefully thus revealingthe reason why Mawlana described his Mathnawi as a ‘Decoder of theQur’an’.

His predication of the Mathnawi as being a ‘Decoder of the Qur’an’ inthe prelude of Book I of the poem itself indicates that he was inter -ested in discovering the inner meaning of the Qur’an according to themethods of mystical interpretation that influenced him. In fact, in hisinterpretation of most verses from the Qur’an, Mawlana undertakes anesoteric approach. It is clear that Aflaki’s report that Sulami’s Haqa’iqal-tafsir was venerated by Mawlana as a great specimen of this type ofinterpretation was by no means an idle anecdote that one can dismissas fantastical, even though his hagiography was composed someseventy years after Rumi’s death.3

Still, it remains unclear how extensively Mawlana utilized such well-known mystical commentaries in his mystical poetry. Quoting certainstatements by Aflaki in this regard,4 Zarrinkub underlines that Mawlana

al-caz. im, ed. M. B. al-Nacsani al-Halabi (Cairo: Matb’a Sa’ada 1329/1908). We will belargely using the translation of this text by Annabel and Ali Keeler, Tafsir al-Tustari (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae 2011), with minor modifications.

2 Abu cAbdu’l-Rahman al-Sulami, Tafsir al-Sulami wa huwa Haqa’iq al-Tafsir, ed.Sayyid cUmran (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya 1422/2001). Wherever possible, wewill be making use of the partial translation of this text by Farhana Mayer: SpiritualGems: The Mystical Qur’an Commentary Ascribed to Ja cfar al-Sadiq as Contained inSulami’s Haqa’iq al-tafsir from the Text of Paul Nwyia (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae 2011).

3 Aflaki states that Mawlana gave away his cloak in gratitude to a scribe who hadcopied out the whole manuscript of the Haqa’iq al-tafsir for him: see Shams al-DinAhmad-i Aflaki, Manaqib al-carifin, ed. Tahsin Yazıcı, 3rd edition, 2 vols. (Ankara:Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi 1959; reprinted Tehran: Dunya-yi Kitab 1375 A.Hsh./1996), vol. II, pp. 604–605.

4 cAbd al-Husayn Zarrinkub, Sirr-i nay (Tehran: Intisharat-i cIlmi 1384 A.Hsh./2005),I, p. 347.

* * *

paid a great deal of attention to researching various methods of theeso teric interpretation of the Qur’an. Zarrinkub judges that the fre -quency and variety of scriptural verses cited in the Mathnawi to be soextensive that, he claims, it would be by no means an exaggeration tocall theMathnawi itself a kind of mystical interpretation of the Qur’an.5

Unfortunately, Zarrinkub does not furnish us with any samples ofSulami’s, Tustari’s, or any other famous mystical commentaries whenciting examples of Rumi’s mystical exegesis of the Qur’an, nor does heclarify precisely how such tafsirs might have affected the poet.In his description of Qur’anic references within the Mathnawi’s

verses, Badic al-Zaman Furuzanfar likewise makes note of Mawlana’sreference to the Lata’if al-isharat, the mystical commentary on theQur’an by Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 465/1074). However, he neitherexplains nor explores how Mawlana actually made use of the Lata’if. 6

In the course of his exposi tion, Furuzanfar only cites Qushayri’s Risalaon Sufism, not his mystical commentary, so ultimately his discussionraises more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, Furuzanfar does not disregard the attention paid to

mystical commentaries by members of Mawlana’s family and his intel -lectual followers. Indicating elsewhere the importance of esoteric inter -pretation of the Qur’an in the Gnostic Intimations (Ma carif ) by Rumi’sfather, Baha’ al-Din Valad (628/1231), Furuzanfar states that one of themost important aspects of that text is that it ‘reveals the secrets of thatcelestial scripture [the Qur’an]’. He compares its exegetical approachwith methods of mystical interpretation employed by the likes of Sulami,Qushayri, Qunavi, and cAbd al-Razzaq Kashani, while referring to Baha’al-Din Valad’s method as being much simpler and certainly moreenjoyable.7

Although all the great commentators on the Mathnawi have alwaysstressed the importance of the impact of quotation and interpretation

5 Sirr-i nay, II, p 373; see also his Bahr dar kuza: naqd u tafsir-i qissaha va tamthilat-iMathnawi, 7th edition (Tehran: Intisharat-i cIlmi 1376 A.Hsh./1997), p. 40.

6 Badic al-Zaman Furuzanfar, Sharh-i Mathnawi-yi sharif, (Tehran: Intisharat-iDanishgah-i Tehran 1346 A.Hsh./1967), vol. 1, editor’s introduction, p. 9.

7 Baha’ al-Din Valad, Ma carif: Majmu ca-yi mava ciz. va sukhanan-i Sultan al-culama’Baha al-Din Muhammad b. Husayn-i Khatibi-yi Balkhi, ed. Badi c�al-Zaman Furuzanfar(Tehran: Idara-yi Kull-i Intibacat-i Vizarat-i Farhang 1955 and 1959; reprintedTehran: Tahuri 1352 A.Hsh./1973), editor’s introduction, pp. y-b; Fritz Meier, Baha’-yi Valad, trans. (German into Persian) Maryam Musharraf (Tehran Markaz-i Nashr-i Danishgahi 1382 A.Hsh./2003), editor’s introduction, p 13.

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of verses from the Qur’an upon the poem and have even writtennumerous works comparing the Islamic scripture with the Mathnawi,8

in general no attention to date has been devoted to the impact of othermystical commentaries upon the Mathnawi. The probable reason forthis is that Mawlana did not himself consider it necessary, when citingQur’anic verses, to provide chapter and verse references back to theQur’an in the other mystical commentaries that he drew upon, such asSulami’s Haqa’iq al-tafsir, Tustari’s Tafsir al-Qur’an, Qushayri’s Lata’ifal-isharat, or Maybudi’s Kashf al-asrar. The only way one can discoverthe sources of his adaptations from such texts is by immersing andfamiliarizing oneself in the study of these commentaries through con -tinuous reading of them over the course of years of study. Anotherobstacle to this type of research is that most of these mystical com -mentaries lack good critical editions, which makes them even moredifficult to use. In this respect, the efforts of a number of Westernscholars to edit these foundational commentaries should be high -lighted here. In particular, the role played by Louis Massignon andPaul Nywia in editing and publishing some parts of Haqa’iq al-tafsir,and the works of G. Böwering in editing the Qur’an commentaries ofTustari and Sulami (see the bibliography) are to be commended.

8 The reason that most works of interpretation or commentary on the Mathnawifeature special indices of verses from the Qur’an and that various scholars havefocused so much on the grand poem’s particular method of Qur’anic tafsir is thatbasically it is impossible to interpret the Mathnawi without reference to the Qur’an.It is nonetheless surprising that in all these writings – and even in books specifi -cally devoted to the subject of references to verses of the Qur’an in the Mathnawi –the phenomenon of the mystical interpretation of the Qur’an is always omitted. Forexample, in Tilmidh Husayn’s Mirat al-Mathnawi (albeit a very valuable work), inthe part allocated to introducing verses from the Qur’an in theMathnawi, no men -tion of the mystical interpretation of the Qur’an appears. The same can be saidabout all the most recent books published in Persian on this subject, such as cAliRidha Mirza Muhammad, Qur’an dar Mathnawi, 2 vols. (Tehran: Pazhuhishgah-iculum-i insani va mutala‘at-i farhangi 1387 A.Hsh./2004) and Baha’ al-DinKhurramshahi and Siyamak Mukhtari, Qur’an va Mathnawi: Farhangvara-yita’thir-i ayat-i Qur’an dar adabiyat-i Mathnawi (Tehran: Nashr-i Qatra 1384A.Hsh./2005), as well as other separate lexicons about Qur’anic passages and versesin the Mathnawi, such as Mahmud Dargahi, Ayat-i Mathnawi (Tehran: Amir Kabir1377 A.Hsh./1998), which are largely based on previously published lexicons. Thesebooks have generally tried to classify and reinterpret earlier interpretations of thesame theme, republishing these in a new, updated format. However, for thestudent who wishes to understand how the traditional mystical interpretation ofthe Qur’an in the Mathnawi is presented, they are of little use.

Despite the fact that these great scholars were not specialists inRumi’s Mathnawi, their endeavours are indirectly quite relevant to thestudy of the Mathnawi, since it is partially because of their work onthe mystical interpretation of the Qur’an commentaries of Tustari andSulami that the present research on the influence of these exegesesupon Mawlana’s Mathnawi has been undertaken. On the basis of theirpublications in print today, and other recent scholarly studies con -ducted on the manuscripts relating to the Qur’an commentaries ofSulami and Tustari in particular, what follows below represents apreliminary attempt at exploring this new field of study. Scholars acknowledge that the writings of Sahl Tustari comprise one

of earliest formulations of Sufi mystical teachings, recognizing that hiscommentary on the Qur’an is one of the most important ever written,especially regarding its establishment of a speculative framework tothe science of tafsir in early Sufism. Tustari, who flourished fourcenturies before Rumi, influenced the author of the Mathnawithrough the medium of a number of important thinkers. First andforemost of these was of course Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (d.505/1111), whose Sufi theology had a great impact on the poetry ofAbu’l-Majd Majdud ibn Adam Sana’i (d. 525/1131) – Rumi’s precursor inmany respects, as the Sage of Konya himself frequently acknowledges.We should also recall, as was mentioned above, Mawlana’s interest inSulami’s Haqa’iq al-tafsir, a commentary that includes almost all ofTustari’s interpretations within it. Therefore, considering the import -ance and impact of Sana’i’s poetry on Mawlana on one hand, and hisinterest in the Haqa’iq al-tafsir on the other, it is hardly surprisingthat we find mystical interpretations and ideas of Tustari constantlyresurfacing in the Mathnawi. In what follows we have endeavoured to trace some of the salient

elements and key motifs of Tustari’s thought that appear in theMathnawi. The most important aspect of Tustari’s legacy passed downto Rumi were Sufi ethical and didactic teachings concerning adab(‘courtesy’, ‘etiquette’, ‘moral rules’, ‘manners’, ‘good conduct’ ), thesubject of many famous Sufi treatises and manuals.9 Some of these

9 On Adab in Sufism, see Ira Lapidus, ‘Knowledge, Virtue and Action: The ClassicalConception of Adab in Islam’, in Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adabin South Asian Islam, ed. Barbara Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press1984); Abu cAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami, A Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct( Jawami‘ adab al-Sufiyya), trans. Elena Biagi (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society

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manuals, which no doubt were well known to Mawlana (as they wouldhave been to any mystic of his background and education), meritmention in this respect: the Adab al-nufus by Harith ibn Asad al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857), the Adab al-muftaqar ila-Allah attributed toAbu’l-Qasim Junayd (d. 297/910), the Adab al-nafs by Muhammad ibn‘Ali al-Hakim Tirmidhi (d.c. 295/908), and of course, the famousJawami c adab al-Sufiyya by Abu cAbdu’l-Rahman Sulami (d. 412/1021).Another important aspect of the heritage of Sufi didactic teachingsbequeathed to Mawlana was found in mystical Qur’an commentaries.Amongst the early Sufi authors of such commentaries the name ofSahl Tustari stands out as a sober mystic who focused on training hisdisciples in the morals and manners of the Sufi Path, avoiding scandal,controversy, and sensationalism.

Struggle Against the Lower Soul ( J IHAD AL-NAFS)

One of the most frequently reiterated motifs in Tustari’s mysticalinterpretation of the Qur’an is that of the struggle between the fleshand the Spirit, that is, between the anima bruta (referred to in Qur’anicArabic as al-nafs al-ammara: ‘the soul that incites one to pursue vice’)and the higher spiritual faculties in man, which include the conscience(al-nafs al-lawwama, literally: ‘the soul that blames’) and ‘the soul atpeace’ with God (al-nafs al-muta’inna). Since this motif is the centralsubject of all religious ethics in Islam in general and Sufi moral teach -ings in particular, it is appropriate if we begin our discussions here. In many of his mystical interpretations of the Qur’an’s verses,

Tustari compares and contrasts the spiritual to the material aspects ofhumanity. The following two examples may serve to exemplify hisapproach:

And if two parties of believers fall to fighting, then make peacebetween them. And if one party of them does wrong to the other,fight that which does wrong till it return unto the ordinance ofGod; then, if it return, make peace between them justly, and actequitably. Lo! God loves the equitable (Qur’an XLIX: 9).10

2010); F. Gabrieli, ‘Adab’, in Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, I, pp. 175–76; Dj.Khaleghi-Motlagh, ‘Adab, i. Adab in Iran’, Encyclopaedia Iranica, I, pp. 432–39.

10 Citations from the Qur’an with minor modifications follow M. Pickthall’s classicrendition: The Glorious Koran (London: Allen & Unwin 1976) frequently reprinted.

According to Tustari’s esoteric interpretation of this verse, the twostruggling forces mentioned here are symbols for opposing faculties ofthe soul fighting within man:

The outward meaning of the verse is as those specialised in exe -gesis have explained.11 However, in its inner meaning it refers tothe spirit (ruh), intellect ( caql ), heart (qalb ), basic nature (tab c),desire (hawa ) and lust (shahwa). If natural instinct, desire and lusttake up arms against the heart, intellect and spirit, the servantmust fight them with the swords of vigilance (muraqaba), thearrows of inspection (mutala ca) and the lights of conformity(muwafaqa ), so that the spirit and the intellect gain the upperhand, and desire and lust are vanquished.12

As we can see from his exegesis, in Tustari’s view the esoteric sense ofthe verse refers to the perpetual struggle between the flesh and theSpirit ongoing within man. Elsewhere in his commentary he contrastsspiritual and sensual pleasures using his own distinctive terminology,declaring that: ‘heavenly pleasures and goods are the rewards for the‘natural soul’ (nafs al-tab c), whereas realization of divine unity(tawhid ) and the Visio Dei (liqa) are the reward for the spiritual soul(nafs al-ruh)’.13

In this respect, it is illuminating to consider Tustari’s interpretationof another passage of the Qur’an: ‘And had We willed, We could haveraised him by their means, but he clung to the earth and followed hisown lusts’ (VII: 176). Tustari does not concentrate on the exoteric senseof the verse, which concerns the ill-fated Balcam, son of Boer, aCanaanite descended from Lot who opposed Moses and his people,14

but focuses on the inner meaning of self-abasement before God:

11 In Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae 2011),p. 201, n. 3, the translators provide this note: ‘According to the comment on this versein Tafsir al-Jalalayn the verse is alluding to the fight between two clans, those of IbnUbayy and Ibn Rawaca. It is reported that the Prophet was riding on a donkey and asit passed by Ibn Ubayy it urinated. Ibn Ubayy held his nose, whereupon Ibn Rawacaremarked: “By God, the smell of the donkey’s urine is sweeter than your musk.” Fight -ing then ensued between the two clans involving fists, sandals and palm branches.’

12 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, p. 149. All quotations from Tustari cited in thisarticle are from the excellent annotated translation of Tafsir al-Tustari by AnnabelKeeler and Ali Keeler cited in note 1 above. This quotation can be found on p. 201.

13 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, pp. 85–88. 14 On which see Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 78, n. 40.

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The self (nafs) has seven heavenly veils and seven earthly veils.The more the servant buries his [lower] self in the earth thehigher will his heart soar heavenwards. Furthermore, if he [com -pletely] buries his lower self beneath the earth his heart will reachthe Throne.15

The core theme of the Mathnawi is likewise the spiritual warfare ofthe Intellect with the ego-self (nafs), the epic struggle of the Spiritagainst the lower soul and its passions constituting the very warp andwoof of Rumi’s vast poem. Exactly how much Mawlana owed to theprevious heritage of theoretical Sufism, speculative mysticism, andesoteric Qur’an exegesis is clear when we read the following verses:

The sensuous eye is the horse, and the Light of God is the rider:without the rider the horse itself is useless.Therefore, train the horse (so as to cure it) of bad habits; else

the horse will be rejected before the king.The Light of God mounts (as a rider) on the sensuous eye, and

then the soul yearns after God.Go towards a sense on which the Light is riding: that Light is a

good companion for the sense.The Light of God is an ornament to the light of sense: this is the

meaning of light upon light.The light of sense draws (a man) towards earth; the Light of God

bears him aloft,Because sensible things are a lower world: the Light of God is

(as) the sea and the sense as a dewdrop.16

Although it cannot be said that Mawlana drew upon Tustari’s esotericinterpretation of the passages from the Qur’an cited above (XLIX: 9;VII: 176) or quoted directly from it in these verses, the similaritiesbetween his symbolic imagery and the hermeneutical approach ofTustari appear to be self-evident.

15 Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, pp. 69–70; Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 78. 16 Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmi, ed. and trans.

Reynold A. Nicholson (London: Luzac 1925–1940), Book II: 1286–87, 1290, 1292–95.All translations from the Mathnawi in this article are by Reynold. A. Nicholson.

The ANIMA BRUTA or ‘Calf of the Lower Soul’(GAV-I NAFS)

The term anima bruta – or, to give the Perso-Arabic term, the ‘Calf ofthe Lower Soul’ (gav-i nafs ) – is used throughout both the Mathnawiand in certain mystical commentaries on the Qur’an as a symbol forbodily pleasures, fleshly lusts, and carnal passions. While commentingon this Qur’anic verse: ‘And when Moses said unto his people: O mypeople! Ye have wronged yourselves by your choosing of the calf (forworship) so turn in penitence to your Creator, and kill yourselves’ (II:54), Sulami cites this comment by Ibn cAta’ (d. 309/921): ‘The lower soulor ego-self (nafs ) of people is their calf; whoever is able to slay thiscalf and struggle against their lower soul’s vices and passions will bereleased from its torment and oppression.’17 In the cAra’is al-bayan fihaqa’iq al-Qur’an, the mystical interpretation of the Qur’an byRuzbihan Baqli of Shiraz (d. 606/1210), the calf symbol in this verse islikewise interpreted as an esoteric allusion to the anima bruta (al-nafsal-ammara).18

In the various passages of the Mathnawi where Mawlana refers tothis particular Qur’anic parable, he presents a virtually identical exe -gesis to that of Sulami and Ruzbihan, at least in terms of imagery andideas. For example, in Book III, he states:

Kill your fleshly soul and make the world (spiritually) alive; it(your fleshly soul) has killed its master: make it (your) slave.. . . The fleshly soul says, ‘How shouldst thou kill my “calf”?’ —

Because the ‘calf ’ of the fleshly soul is the (outward) form of thebody.19

In Book VI he again harks back to same theme, while referring to thetale of Moses and Golden Calf:

Like the people of Moses in the heat of Desert, thou hast remainedforty years in (the same) place, O foolish man.

17 Sulami, Tafsir al-Sulami, ed. ‘Umran, vol. 1, p. 59. 18 Ruzbihan Baqli, cAra’is al-bayan fi haqa’iq al-Qur’an, ed. Shaykh Ahmad Farid al-

Mazidi, 3 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya 1429/2008), vol. 1, p. 49. 19 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book III: 2504, 2509 (with minor

modifications).

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Daily thou marchest rapidly till nightfall and findest thyself(still) in the first stage of thy journey.Thou wilt never traverse this three hundred years distance so

long as thou hast love for the calf.Until the fancy (illusion) of the calf went out of their hearts, the

Desert was to them like a blazing pool.20

The Idol of the Lower Soul

The passions of the lower soul are so all-absorbing and enthrallingthat one often follows its caprices, indulges its whims, and veneratesits every desire as though it were an idol. It is for this reason that thetraditional Sufi adage: ‘The lower soul is verily the mother of all idols’(al-nafsu hiya ummu ’l-asnam) likens the lower soul to an idol.21

In his interpretation of the verse, ‘And preserve me and my sonsfrom serving idols’ (XIV: 35), Sulami cites a statement by Ibn cAta’, whoquipped that ‘the idol of passion is the worst idol’.22 Rumi adoptsexactly the same simile in these well-known verses from the first bookof the Mathnawi:

Inasmuch as he did not give due punishment to this idol of self,from the idol of his self the other idol was born.The idol of your self is the mother of (all) idols, because that

(material) idol is (only) a snake, while this (spiritual) idol is adragon.23

Altru istic Self- Sacrif ice and Generos ity of Soul

The idea that true generosity lies in acts of self-sacrifice involvingrelin quishing bodily pleasures and extinguishing the fire of passionappears at first sight to be one of Rumi’s original poetic coinages.However, on closer examination, we find that the theology underlyingthis doctrine is derived from traditional Sufi exegeses on this Qur’anic

20 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book VI: 1788–91. 21 Cited in Nicholson’s commentary on Rumi, Mathnawi, Book I: 772. 22 Sulami, Tafsir al-Sulami, ed. cUmran, vol. 1, p. 347. 23 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book II: 771–72. The various Qur’anic,

Biblical, and Sufi contexts evoked by Rumi in these verses are the subject ofNicholson’s commentary on vv. 770–72.

verse: ‘You will not attain to piety (al-birr ) until ye spend of thatwhich ye love’ (III: 92). Tustari interprets this verse to mean: ‘You willnot attain full piety until you go to war with your lower selves andspend of what you love’, adding: ‘There is no spending (infaq) likeconsuming (infaq) the lower soul by opposing it and by seeking thegood pleasure of God, Mighty and Majestic is He.’24 Tustari’s exegesisof the inner meaning of generosity here finds a direct reprise in theseverses by Rumi:

Munificence is the abandonment of lusts and pleasures; no onewho is sunken in lust rises up (again).This munificence is a branch of cypress of Paradise: woe to him

that lets such a branch go from his hand.25

Fasting and Eating HALAL Food

Throughout the Mathnawi Mawlana lays considerable emphasis onthe spiritual advantages to be reaped from fasting and hunger. Inseveral passages he also stresses the importance of consumption ofproper halal food, that is, food obtained in accordance with Islamicdietary laws. In the beginning of Book II of theMathnawi, he describes the mouth as the gateway to Hell.26 Hunger,on the other hand, he opines, is the sultan of all medicinal remedies, aremedy best suited to advanced spiritual adepts:

Indeed hunger is the king of medicines: hark, lay hunger to theheart, do not regard it with such contempt.. . . Hunger is bestowed as a gift on God’s elect (alone), that

through hunger they may become puissant lions.27

The comparison of hunger to ‘medicine’ advocated by Rumi here,harks back to traditional Sufi spiritual psychology according to which

24 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 47 (with minor modifications);Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, p. 49. See also Sulami, Tafsir al-Sulami, ed.cUmran, vol. II, pp. 107–108. Also see Rashid al-Din Maybudi’s interpretation of thisverse in his Kashf al-asrar wa cuddat al-abrar, ed. cAli Asghar Hikmat, (Tehran:Intisharat-i Danishgahi 1952–1960), vol. II, p. 207.

25 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book II: 1272–73. 26 Ibid., Book II: 12. 27 Ibid., Book V: 2832, 2838.

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hunger was considered to be the best means to treat various ailmentsof the soul. In the quaternion of remedies for diseases of the soul,hunger features chief, according to both Tustari and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. In his Treatise on the Diseases of the Soul Sulami wrote: ‘Thepassions of the lower soul are strengthened through satiety; satietyprompts one to seek indulgence and incites the heart to pursue itspassions and pleasures and to become lethargic. Hunger, however,weakens the lower soul, dissuades it from the pursuit of pleasures andself-indulgence, so the heart can dominate and subjugate it.’28

This same notion is reiterated throughout the Mathnawi. In thefollowing verses, Rumi describes food sourced by proper (halal ) meansas the source of interior illumination and wisdom:

The mouthful that gave increase of light and perfection isobtained from lawful earnings.From the lawful morsel are born knowledge and wisdom, from

the lawful morsel come out love and tenderness.. . . The morsel is seed, and thoughts are its fruit; the morsel is

the sea, and thoughts are its pearls.From the lawful morsel in the mouth is born the inclination to

serve (God) and the resolve to go to yonder world.29

Rather than simply admonishing the reader to pursue salvation byslavish adherence to the outward Muslim code of alimentation, that is,the dry doctrine of solely eating ‘religiously permissible food’ (halal ),the context of this passage is far broader in meaning, containingmanifold significances: (1) to avoid illegal means of securing one’slivelihood and subsistence, (2) to abstain from the consumption ofirresponsibly sourced food, and (3) to refrain from wasting one’s time

28 Sulami, Jawami‘c adab al-Sufiyya and cUyub al-nafs wa mudawatuha, ed. EtanKohlberg ( Jerusalem: Mahad al-Dirasat al-Asiwiyyat wa’l-Afriqiyya, al-Jamica al-cIbriyya fi al-Urshalim, al-Matbaca al-Akadimiyya 1976), paragraph 19, p. 81; see alsoSulami, Majmu ca athar: bakhshha-yi az Haqa’iq al-tafsir va risalat-i digar, ed. N.Purjavadi, 2 vols. (Tehran: Markaz-i Nashr-i Danishgahi 1369–1372 A.Hsh./1990–1993), vol. I, p. 321.

29 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book I: 1644, 1647–48. Cf. Qushayri’sremark: ‘They found the springs of wisdom in hunger’, in Qushayri, Tarjuma-yiRisala-yi Qushayri (Persian edition of Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya), trans. Abu cAliHasan ibn Ahmad al-cUthmani, ed. Badi c al-Zaman Furuzanfar (Tehran: Intisharat-iBungah-i Tarjumah va Nashr-i Kitab 1345 A.Hsh./1966), p. 212.

lest it be ‘consumed’ by association with base folk and thus become‘devoured’ by bad thoughts. In this respect, Tustari’s interpretation ofthe following verse: ‘Eat and drink, but be not prodigal. Lo! He lovethnot the prodigals’ (Qur’an, VII: 31) merits citation and comparison:

God, Exalted is He, created the world and placed knowledge andwisdom within hunger ( ju c), and placed ignorance and transgres -sion within satiety (shab c). So, when you are hungry ask for satietyfrom the One who has afflicted you with hunger, and if you aresatiated, ask for hunger from the One who has afflicted you withsatiety, otherwise you will commit excesses and transgress. Thenhe recited: ‘Nay, but verily man is wont to rebellious – that hethinks himself independent.’30 He also said: ‘Truly, hunger is asecret among the secrets of God, Exalted is He, on earth, which Hedoes not entrust to anyone who will disseminate it.’31

When describing a Sufi teacher rebuke his disciple’s dread of goinghungry, Mawlana apparently had this selfsame adage in mind whenhe composed these verses:

You are not (one) of the honoured favourites (of God) that youshould be kept without walnuts and raisins.Hunger is the daily bread of the souls of God’s elect: how is it

amenable to (in the power of ) a beggarly fool like you?Be at ease: you are not (one) of those, so that you should tarry

without bread in this kitchen.32

From the citations given above, it seems evident that Rumi was influ -enced by Tustari’s School in which the consumption of reli giouslypermissible food (halal ) had special importance. In his inter pretationof the verse: ‘And whatsoever the messenger gives you, take it, and

30 Qur’an, XCVI: 6–7. 31 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 72 (with minor modifications);Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, p. 65. A similar statement known to Rumi was:‘Hunger is the food of God, yet none will consume it except the noble.’ InFuruzanfar, Sharh-i Mathnawi-yi sharif, p. 148; Sadiq Gawharin, Farhang-i lughatva ta cbirat-i Mathnawi-ye Jalal al-Din Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn HusaynBalkhi, 9 vols. (Tehran: Tehran University Press 1339 A.Hsh./1960), vol. III, p. 339.

32 Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, V: 2845–47 (with slight modifications).

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whatsoever he forbids, abstain from it’,33 Tustari commented: ‘Theprinciples of our school are three: consuming what is legitimate (aklal-halal ); following the example of the Messenger in his character(akhlaq) and actions (af cal ), and sincerity of intention (ikhlas al-niya) inall works.’34

The Esoteric Hierarchy

The principle of avoiding causing harm and distress to others (inPersian: tark-i azar ) was a doctrine of fundamental importance to theSufis, with whole chapters of Sufi manuals often devoted to it and Sufipoets constantly reiterating it as one of their key ethical teachings.35

The doctrine is ultimately traceable back to the description of thegenerously magnanimous nature of the friends of God given in theQur’an: in particular, to one verse where we read: ‘And the believers,men and women, are protecting friends one of another’ (IX: 71). Tustariinterpreted this verse to mean: ‘A person’s protective friendship(muwalat ) towards the believers is his avoiding doing them any harm.. . . Know that the servant does not attain true faith (haqiqat al-iman)until he becomes as the earth for the servants of God — it endures thesuffering that they impose upon it, and they derive benefits from it.’36

As these verses from the Mathnawi about the long-suffering patientendurance of God’s friends illustrate, exactly the same ethical teach -ing was also of special significance to Mawlana:

The chosen servants of God are merciful and long-suffering: theypossess the disposition of God in regard to putting things right.They are kind and bribeless ones, helpers in the hard plight and

the heavy, grievous day.37

33 Qur’an, trans. Pickthall, LIX: 7 (with minor modifications). 34 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 226; Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari,ed. Basil p. 165.

35 For a discussion of the Sufi context of this theme in the work of one famousPersian poet (Hafiz. ), see Leonard Lewisohn, ‘The Religion of Love and the Puritansof Islam: Sufi Sources of Hafiz. ’s Anti-clericalism’, in Hafiz and the Religion of Love inClassical Persian Poetry, ed. Leonard Lewisohn (London: I. B. Tauris 2010), pp. 164–65.

36 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 84; Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed.Basil, p. 73. Also cf. Sulami, Jawami‘, ed. Kohlberg, paragraph 151, p. 59.

37 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book III: 2223–24.

But God’s friends (awliya’ ) are not only endowed with sublimelyaltruistic ethics, they constitute a kind of esoteric pantheon who rulethe world, that is, a hidden hierarchy of saints who invisibly protecthumankind from tribulations, disasters and affliction. The theory ofthe esoteric hierarchy of God’s friends or saints who secretly directand oversee the world’s affairs is elaborated throughout Sulami’s exe -gesis on the Qur’an. Apropos of the following verse: ‘And the earthhave We spread out, and placed therein firm hills (rawasi )’ (XV: 19),Sulami pronounces: ‘The meaning of “firm hills” is the hierarchicaldegree and the spiritual state of God’s friends, who have been ap -pointed by God as a means to repel disasters, so that due to theirposition all indecent acts are prevented . . . these friends of God giveshelter to, and are a source of, consolation and protection for God’sservants in times of trouble and affliction.’38 Upon another verse: ‘AndWe appointed from among them leaders who are guided by Ourcommand’,39 Sulami likewise cites this saying by Abu Sacid Kharraz (d.286/899): ‘God’s adepts who have verified the truth of things have acertain ethical pre-eminence over others. They avoid causing harm,offence or distress to others, and exhibit patience in face of afflictionand tribulation. They live among others without standing out or beingnoticed, and even though they are the preservers of mankind, no onepays them any particular regard, which is the meaning of God’s word:“We appointed from among them leaders.”’The theory of God’s saints who direct the esoteric hierarchy of the

world and provide assistance, both manifest and hidden, to human -kind, elaborated by Sulami above, is likewise one of the Mathnawi ’score themes, as these verses attest:

The valiant holy men are a help in the world when the wail of theoppressed reaches them.From every quarter they hear the cry of the oppressed and run

in that direction, like the mercy of God.

38 Sulami, Tafsir al-Sulami, ed. cUmran, vol. 1, p. 351. See also Sulami’s exegesis of theQur’an XIII: 3, in ibid., vol. 1, p. 326.

39 Qur’an, XXXII: 24. In the printed text, due to typographical errors, this statement isso indecipherable as to be unreadable, but it can be extrapolated from manuscriptreadings of the Haqa’iq al-tafsir, such as MS. Rashid al-Din, fol. 158B (see Sulami,Haqa’iq al-Tafsir . . .).

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Those buttresses for the breaches of the world, those physiciansfor hidden maladies,Are pure love and justice and mercy; even as God, they are

flawless, incorruptible and unbribed.40

Concealment of Foibles and Condemnation of Fault-f inding

Turning from the esoteric spiritual hierarchy of the invisible realm tothe exoteric social structure of medieval Islamic society, anotherfundamental theme found throughout the commentaries of bothTustari and Sulami – a theme also reiterated in many places in Rumi’sMathnawi – is the ethical precept of overlooking the faults of others( cayb-pushi ) and, simultaneously, reviling the evils of exposing theflaws of one’s neighbour (cayb-ju’i ).41 In this respect, it is illuminatingto read Tustari’s interpretation on this key verse: ‘O ye who believe!Shun much suspicion; for lo! some suspicion is a crime. And spy not,neither backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the fleshof his dead brother? Ye abhor that (so abhor the other)! And keep yourduty (to God). Lo! God is Relenting, Merciful.’42 Asked in this contextabout the meaning of the Prophet’s words ‘Be on your guard withpeople, [by holding a] bad opinion (ihtarisu al-nas bi su’ al-z.ann)’,Tustari replied:

The meaning of this is [that protection from people] is [gained byholding a] bad opinion of yourself, not of other people. In otherwords, accuse your own self for not treating them fairly in yourdealings with them.43 [Concerning ‘And spy not . . .’], he said: ‘Donot search out the faults that God has covered for His servants,for you may well be afflicted by that [fault]’. It was related of Jesusthat he used to say, ‘Do not speak too much other than inremembrance of God, Mighty and Majestic is He, for your hearts

40 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book II: 1933–36. 41 For a discussion of this theme in the Persian Sufi tradition see Lewisohn, ‘The

Religion of Love and the Puritans of Islam: Sufi Sources of Hafiz. ’s Anti-clericalism’,in Hafiz, ed. Lewisohn, pp. 164–66.

42 Qur’an, trans. Pickthall, XLIX: 12 (with minor modifications). 43 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, ed. Basil, p. 150; Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler andKeeler, p. 201 (with minor modifications).

will be hardened, and the heart that is hard is far from God. Donot regard the faults of people as if you were their masters, butlook at your own works as if they were your slaves. Know thatpeople are either afflicted (mubtala ) or preserved (mu cafa ), soshow mercy to those who are afflicted and ask God forpreservation.’44

The innumerable strictures made by Mawlana against censuring thevices of others while not censoring one’s own faults is a key theme inthe Mathnawi that would require a separate essay itself to expound.However, some of the following verses merit citation in this respect:

Do not you, then, whatsoever grief befall you, resentfully accuseany one: turn upon yourself.Do not think evil of another, O you who gratify the desire of

your friend: do not that which that slave was meditating.. . . You also are bad and malign to others outside, while you

have become complaisant to the grievous self and carnal soulwithin.It is your enemy indeed, yet you are giving it candy, while

outside you are accusing every one.45

Rumi’s denunciation of fault-finding reappears in Book III with thefollowing subtitle: ‘Explaining what is signified by the far-sighted blindman, deaf man who is sharp of hearing, and the naked man with thelong skirts.’ The avarice of the far-sighted blind man, he explains,makes him utterly blind to his own faults while perfectly cognizant ofothers’ foibles and peccadilloes:

The blind man is Greed: he sees other peoples faults, hair by hairand tells them from street to street(But) his blind eyes do not perceive one mote of his own faults,

albeit he is a fault-finder.The naked man is afraid that his skirt will be cut off: how

should they (any one) cut off the skirt of a naked man?46

44 Ibid. Cf. Sulami, Jawami c, ed. Kohlberg, nos. 141–42, p. 55; no. 88, p. 37. 45 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book IV: 1913–14, 1918–19. 46 Ibid., Book III: 2629–30.

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But the friends of God are quite the opposite: they conceal the faultsof their neighbours:

He knows and keeps riding on silently: he smiles in thy face inorder to mask (his feelings).47

. . . He knows and by command of Almighty he conceals (it), forit would not be lawful to divulge the secret of God.48

From the above passages it is easy to see how close Mawlana’s viewsabout fault-finding are to those of Sahl Tustari. Referring to this phrase‘neither backbite one another . . .’ in same verse of the Qur’an citedabove, Tustari enjoins: ‘Whoever wants to be safe from backbitingshould bar the door to ill assumptions (z.unun) in himself, for whoeveris safe from making ill assumptions, is safe from backbiting (ghayba),and whoever is safe from backbiting, is safe from calumny (zur ), andwhoever is safe from calumny, is safe from slander (buhtan).’49 Exactlythese sentiments are expressed in these famous lines by Rumi aboutthe importance of good manners and the virtue of forbearance:

O Muslim, whilst you are still engaged in the quest, good mannersare indeed nothing but forbearance with every one that isunmannerly.When you see any one complaining of such and such a person’s

ill nature and bad temper,Know that the complainant is bad-tempered, forasmuch as he

speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,Because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing

towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.50

Conclus ion

Although Mawlana had recourse to diverse textual and contextualmethods of exegesis of the Qur’an in order to expound his ownviewpoint and ideas, it is quite evident that he propounded his ownparticular esoteric approach to various verses of the scripture

47 Ibid., Book I: 330. 48 Ibid., Book III: 1669. 49 Tustari, Tafsir al-Tustari, trans. Keeler and Keeler, p. 202. See also Sulami, Jawami c,

ed. Kohlberg, vol. 2, p. 263. 50 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, Book IV: 771–74.

throughout the Mathnawi. However, his aim was neither aestheticelaboration nor literary elucidation of individual verses, nor was heinterested in highlighting the contextual historical meanings of anyits verses. Rather, his focus was on the esoteric significance of theMuslim missal, wherein he sought to reveal the secondary, hiddenconnotations par derrière de la lettre of the text in order to disclose thespiritual and moral meanings that lay secreted therein. The fundamental aim of Rumi’s mystical thought in the Mathnawi

is one of moral prescription, his objective being to cure the afflictionsof the soul and find remedies for psycho-spiritual diseases. His poetryin this sense is homiletic, aiming to better comprehend and henceexpound and remedy the maladies of the lower soul and the foibles ofegocentric self-absorption that accompanied them. It is largely to thisend that he has recourse to citation of passages from the Muslimscripture. Since his esoteric approach to the Qur’an was a matter ofpractical ethics and not abstract theoretical hermeneutics, he alsoeasily managed to elaborate his own independent, mythopoetic visionof the world and man, and to develop his own unique theocentrichumanistic thinking that has made his thought and verse admired byvotaries of all faiths and sects the world over. To some extent, we find echoes of Mawlana’s hermeneutical

approach in the grand commentaries on the Qur’an by Sahl Tustariand Sulami written in the ninth century. During the twelfth century,the works of these classical exegetes were later reclaimed anddeveloped to their full maturity in the Sufi poetry of Sana’i and in themystical theology of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, whose esoteric mode ofthinking continued to dominate the mainstream of Persian Sufimystical literature thereafter. Finally, drawing on these rich veins ofmystical exegesis developed over the previous four centuries, in thethirteenth century Rumi turned his own Mathnawi into an inde -pendent, esoteric commentary on the Qur’an, declaring it in fact to bea veritable ‘Decoder of the Qur’an’. How and why this is so, we hope tohave partially shown above.In the second, concluding part of this essay, forthcoming in the

Mawlana Rumi Review, vol. VII, we continue to explore how Rumiaddresses another wide range of Sufi themes – tribulations and trials,divine deceit or God’s guile, the importance of trustworthi ness inconcealing secrets, the doctrine of trust in God and renuncia tion ofper sonal contrivance and volition, the necessity of maintaining a

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positive and good opinion of the ways of God, the doctrine of theabandonment of secondary causes, and finally, the role and meaningof supplication and invocation in the spiritual life – showing howmany of his expressions in the Mathnawi about these topics have theirsource in the commentaries on the Qur’an by Sahl Tustari, Sulami,and other early classical commentators.

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